Washington, D.C. — Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar held an enrollment ceremony to sign the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act and send it to President Obama for his signature.  This morning, the Senate passed the House version of the HIRE Act, a bipartisan bill that will create and save hundreds of thousands of jobs and strengthen the economy. Below is a transcript of their remarks:

Speaker Pelosi.  Good afternoon.  I’ve very delighted to be here with our Distinguished Majority Leader.  We had hoped also that the Chair of the Infrastructure and Transportation Committee, Mr. Oberstar, would be with us, but he has a very important bill on the floor right now and depending on that debate, he may or may not be joining us.  But he certainly has been on the lead in investments in infrastructure, which is what this bill is about.

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Washington, DC— Nevada Senator Harry Reid released the following statement this morning after the Senate voted to pass the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act by a margin of 68-29:

“Passage of this bill is an important step in our continuing commitment to put more Nevadans and more Americans back to work.  This fully paid-for legislation cuts taxes for businesses so that they can hire more workers, cuts costs for small businesses and invests in our nation’s infrastructure.   Thousands of Nevadans and millions of Americans are struggling to find work and are worried about being able to support their families.  Today’s vote is vital because more than one million jobs will be saved or created by this bill.

“The bipartisan support that this bill has received is a signal that Republicans will support our jobs agenda to strengthen our economy and create jobs.  I ask those Republicans who continue to object and obstruct to join us in our work to find solutions.  Senate Democrats stand with middle-class Americans trying to support their families and small businesses trying to thrive in this economy.”

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By Katie Packer

The Daily Caller

As if the Obama administration hasn’t given union bosses enough “payback,” it is poised to give them even more – only this time the gift is as dangerous as Big Labor’s other agenda items such as the Employee “Forced” Choice Act, and will result in more job loss.

The new and badly mislabeled “High Road Contracting Policy” as reported in The Wall Street Journal will allow the government to “use its authority over how taxpayer money is spent to favor unions and their agenda. This is good news for Andy Stern and his Service Employees International Union. But not so good for job creation.”

First reported in The Daily Caller, the policy gives preference to any federal government contractor who complies with union-driven wage and benefit demands, and the government would rate each contractor according to yet-undefined evaluation factors – possibly blacklisting existing or new, non-union contractors from competing.

Simply stated, this is not the American way.

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